Rumelaj translation (read at your own risk)
Andrea L Majewska
(regarding Rumelaj)
>I would also like to point out that the recording artists, Kalyi Jag,
>invariably put lyrics of the liner notes, but did not do so for this
>particular song, but instead put a translation for an ajoining song
>under the Rumelaj title.
Interesting! MY version of the recording/lyrics (LP not CD) included NO
words at all for Rumelaj. They really were being cagey about this one!
It has been suggested to me that they might not have known the meaning
(and therefore the correct spelling) themselves.
Regarding the two different translations given recently, all I can say is
that "kurva" means whore in the Slavic languages *I* know, but moving
vowels in and out of consonant pairs especially where 'R's are involved
is very common, so a link between kurva and krew/krwawy (Polish for
blood/ bloody) isn't entirely far fetched. '-grad', 'gorod', 'hrad'
'gro'd' all are versions of 'city'. What fun!
Maybe someday Kalyi Jag will tour the US and we can all pounce on them
with this question.
Andrea
Kathleen Hunt
dancable gypsy song that's very popular in the international folk dance
community, and is the song to which the gypsy dance "Jeni Jol" is most
frequently danced. And now we all find out that it may be x-rated! You
can, of course, dance "Jeni Jol" to other music, but "Rumelaj" is by far
the most popular music for it.
The translation to "Rumelaj" is a controversial puzzle.
There was a flurry of discussion about it on the eefc net a few months ago.
Basically, it's in a Romanian gypsy dialect which apparently few people
in the U.S. know. The words are *apparently*:
Zetur minji maj
mundra kurva me
Zetur minji maj mada
mundra da meri
Rume-, Rume-, Rumelaj,
hojdi hojdi hojdi...
(The words just repeat over and over. Yes, only one verse.)
If these are indeed the words, then according to Dr. Ian Hancock (the
Romany nation's U.N. ambassador/advisor, and a linguist at U. Texas
specializing in variants of the Rom language), "minji", "mundra" and
"kurva" make it an x-rated song, particularly "minji", which he thinks is
a dialect of "mindzh", which means a certain part of the female anatomy....
BUT, another linguist, Victor Frieman at U. Chicago, disagrees with the
translation for "minji", saying it is NOT a form of "mindzh". But he
doesn't know what it *does* mean. He agrees that it sounds like they're
saying "mundra" and "kurva". But without knowing what language the song
is in, or at the very least where the word divisions are in the song, he
can't do a clear translation.
I will stick the translation at the VERY END of this post, so if you want
to read it, you can. If you don't want to read it, do not read past the
P.S.!
This all sparked a big debate on the politics of performing a song that
might offend members of the nation from which the song came. Of course
it's hard to judge even what they might think is "offensive". For example,
Hungarian songs are often raunchy, but the Hungarians seem to think
that's perfectly fine.
I was fascinated to see Steve Kotansky introduce a new dance at Stockton
this year that goes with another song by the same group that did
"Rumelaj". It's "Ketri Ketri" -- very nice music and a fun easy dance
that I think may be popular. Steve made a curiously evasive speech about
the song, completely avoiding saying what it meant, which made me wonder
if it might turn into another Rumelaj....
And just for fun --
Here's some alternate words for Rumelaj, written by Linnea Mandell and
Craig Kurumada for a Zivio dance party in Salt Lake City:
ROOTELAJ
Jan Root a question set, before the Balkan net,
"Has anyone out there seen what these unknown words mean?
A favor we would ask, a simple little task.
If the English words you know, please e-mail to Zivio."
Chorus:
Rumors, rumors, rumors, lies! Hide it, hide it, hide it!
This song they translated and found it was x-rated.
Rumors, rumors, rumors, lies! Hide it, hide it, hide it!
Please don't ask me to say what this means in Romane.
Translations she did get, from all the internet
Only then was she to learn she'd opened a can of worms
E-mail boxes jammed, all across the land
No one knew just what to do, and oh, how the comments flew!
(Chorus)
"Oh, what shall we do?" cried out those who knew.
"Perform this song do we dare, now that we are aware?
Oh my, woe is me, this song is on CD!
This will leave an ugly scar on our favorite repertoire."
(Chorus)
What language do you speak? Turkish, Chinese or Greek?
Search the language of the Kurds, we've got to find some other words!
So we wrote this song. Did we do so wrong?
Now you know the reason why we can't sing you Rumelaj!
****
Cute version, isn't it?
My band still performs Rumelaj for our own dance group, most of whom
know the story and are just amused. But we sometimes decline to play
it for audiences of unknown nationality and temperament.
Kathleen
P.S. And finally, because you're all dying to know now, here's the supposed
translation.
WARNING! EXPLICIT TRANSLATION FOLLOWS!
READ NO FURTHER IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED!
*ahem*
"Give me your pussy,
You beautiful whore,
Give me your pussy,
Give it to me today.
Rume-, Rume-, Rumelia, [or possibly "Gypsy camp"]
Let's go, let's go, let's go..."
--
If we increase the size of the penguin until it is the same height as
the man and then compare the relative brain size, we now find that the
penguin's brain is still smaller. But, and this is the point, it is
larger than it *was*. (Monty Python)
Brian Sutin
>"Rumelaj", for those of you who don't know, is a very fun, seductive,
>dancable gypsy song that's very popular in the international folk dance
I would also like to point out that the recording artists, Kalyi Jag,
invariably put lyrics of the liner notes, but did not do so for this
particular song, but instead put a translation for an ajoining song
under the Rumelaj title.
Brian Sutin su...@lick.ucsc.edu
Lick Observatory, UCSC Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Fred: "May I rescue you?" `Top Hat,' RKO 1935
Ginger: "No, thank you. I prefer being in distress."
Donald VuKovic
: "Rumelaj", for those of you who don't know, is a very fun, seductive,
<snip>
I posted this post at our studio Friday night and everone how read it asks:
If a boy is asking a girl for her favors -- then why is the song sung by a
girl?? ( our recording anyway )
donaldV
Craig Paul
> mundra kurva me
> Zetur minji maj mada
> mundra da meri
>
> Rume-, Rume-, Rumelaj,
> hojdi hojdi hojdi...
Given that the song contains alot of southern slavic words,
recognizable by Macedonian/Bulgarian speakers (as one of the other
posters' notes about krva/kurva) and that a local Romany speaker here
provided the missing words (mundra - good, da meri) it's seems
reasonable that the Hungarians wouldn't know what the Slavic words
mean.
I'd posted a more 'simple' translation a few days ago.